1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interactive system enabling participation at home, in front of a television receiver, in a television program such as game or a remote purchase or any other application of a transactional nature such as a page of advertising, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among existing systems available to television viewers, there is the known multipoint system. This system is limited to a pocket calculator type of pack that is specialized in a specified type of transaction which is a game of lots. This pack comprises a keyboard, photoelectric sensors enabling the acquisition of information elements transmitted in binary form by two flashing luminous rectangles that appear on the screen of the television set at certain times and a microcontroller with a memory enabling the recording of the activity of the keyboard and of the luminous information elements acquired by means of the photoelectric sensors. To take part in a multipoint game proposed during a television program, the viewer, using the photoelectric sensors of his pack, must acquire information elements transmitted to the screen by two flashing luminous rectangles to identify the game. Then, as the case may be, he types in a code on the keyboard of his pack, authorizing participation in the game, and then an acquisition code to answer questions asked during the televised game. To find out his winnings in the game, the viewer must return his pack to a distributor or retailer equipped with a specialized processing terminal.
These systems have little interactive quality and have not been very successful commercially.
There is also a system, known from the international patent application WO-A-91/06160 (RHOADES), for the distribution of video games with one or more storage centers and subscribers at a distance connected by telephone and by a system of cable television. Each subscriber has a games console that displays a video image on a standard television receiver and is connected both by telephone to a storage center and by cable to a television program distribution station. The telephone line enables the subscriber to choose his game, the program of which is transmitted to him in encoded form by cable. The games console has means (keyboard and screen) to converse with the storage center by the telephone line and especially to receive an authorization code for the use of a game, means to decode a selected games program that is received by the cable and a non-volatile memory card to memorize a games program.
A games console such as this is not open-ended and is strictly specialized in the choice of a game at a distance according to an unchanging procedure.
There is also a known system of interactive television described in the European patent application EP-A-0 624 040 (AT&T). In this system, a subscriber can choose his program. This interactive television system uses a mode of two-way pack transmission, between an information retrieval center and remote subscribers, on a cable network. The intelligence of the transaction is located at the information retrieval center, and the subscriber has a specialized interface pack specially designed to meet the requirements of the information retrieval center within the framework of a fixed dialog procedure.